Knoxville kicks off Christmas in the City with Regal Celebration of Lights

Thousands of people gathered in Krutch Park and Market Square in Knoxville on Friday night to kick off Christmas in the City with the Regal Celebration of Lights and the opening of the Holidays on Ice skating rink.

Friday night’s events were started with the annual tree lighting ceremony in the Krutch Park Extension on Gay Street. Spectators filled the park and spilled into the street while Mayor Madeline Rogero and Regal Entertainment Group Chief Financial Officer David Ownby addressed the crowd. As the crowd waited to light the 42-foot, multi-color tree, Rogero and Ownby took the opportunity to highlight the success of the city’s downtown area and of programs like Christmas in the City.

“Over the course of the last decade, our city’s leadership has done a great job of making our downtown not just a place to work, but also a place to visit, a place to live, a place to eat and place to play, and we could not be happier at Regal Entertainment Group about being a part of this downtown community,” Ownby said.  

Rogero also took a moment to thank the city employees who help bring Christmas in the City to life each year and outlined the effort that goes in to making the Celebration of Lights and the city’s other holiday events happen each year.

“Hats off to our public service department crews,” she said. ‘They start working in October to hang thousands, literally thousands, of strands of lights, greenery and banners. They assemble this big tree, and the construct the ice rink on Market Square.”

The celebration featured two stages for live music and several food and craft vendors that lined Market Street along Krutch Park. Gay Street was closed to vehicles from Church Avenue to Wall Avenue, with an exception made for miniature trains, which carried passengers through a crowd of pedestrians.

Rogero made a point of thanking the event’s sponsors including Regal Entertainment Group and Home Federal Bank, which presented the Holiday on Ice skating rink, as well as the Knoxville News Sentinel, and she emphasized the importance of community in spreading the holiday spirit.

“This is a very special holiday season where we come together as a community to have fun and to celebrate and to remember that, though we represent many different faith traditions, ethnicities, beliefs, we are one community, and we are united as Knoxvillians and East Tennesseans,” she said.